Charter for Working Group

TCP is currently the Internet's predominant transport protocol. TCPMis the working group within the IETF that handles small TCP changes,i.e., minor extensions to TCP algorithms and protocol mechanisms.The TCPM WG serves several purposes:

* The WG is a venue for moving current TCP specifications along thestandards track (as community energy is available for such efforts).

* The focus of the working group is TCP. In cases where smallchanges are directly applicable to other transports (e.g., SCTP orDCCP), the mappings to other transports may be specified alongsidethat for TCP, but other significant additions and changes to othertransports are not in scope.

TCPM also provides a venue for standardization of incrementalenhancements of TCP's standard congestion control. In addition,TCPM may document alternative TCP congestion control algorithmsthat are known to be widely deployed, and that are consideredsafe for large-scale deployment in the Internet. Changes of algorithmsmay require additional review by the IRTF Congestion ControlResearch Group (ICCRG). Fundamental changes to TCP or its congestioncontrol algorithms (e.g., departure from loss-based congestioncontrol) will be handled by other working groups or will requirerechartering.

TCP's congestion control algorithms are the model followed byalternate transports (e.g., SCTP or DCCP), which are standardized inother working groups, such as the Transport Area WG (tsvwg). In thepast, the IETF has worked on several documents about algorithms thatare specified for multiple protocols (e.g., TCP and SCTP) in thesame document. Which WG shepherds such documents will be determinedon a case-by-case basis. In any case, the TCPM WG will remain inclose contact with other relevant WGs working on these protocols toensure openness and stringent review from all angles.

New TCPM milestones that fall within the scope specified within thecharter can be added after consensus on acceptance in the workinggroup and approval by the responsible Area Director.

Milestones

Date

Milestone

Nov 2019

Submit document on TCP Control Block Interdependence to the IESG for publication as Informational RFC
draft-ietf-tcpm-2140bis